Slope reasoning on paper

Intermediate Mathematics English
Also available: Deutsch
Created by Best · 17.07.2026 at 11:55 UTC

This is the pencil-and-paper form of the no-three-in-line problem, placing $11$ counters on the $8 \times 8$ grid. Record each counter as a coordinate pair and test a new placement by slope, including vertical and horizontal lines.

Write slopes as reduced fractions: two segments lie on the same line only if their reduced slopes match and they pass through a common point. Symmetry saves work: a solution reflected or rotated is still a solution, so you can search a small part of the board and generate the rest.

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Tasks
Question 1

Writing slopes as reduced fractions helps because:

Question 2

Why can you search only a fraction of all placements?

Card Info
  • Topic: Mathematics
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Completed: 0 users
Creator
Best
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